1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a traverse yarn guide. More particularly, the present invention relates to a traverse yarn guide for use with a continuous filament winder which includes a cam, a cam groove and a guide slot.
2. The Prior Art
Prior art traverse yarn guides are typically reciprocated in a guide slot, parallel to a cam and the building yarn package, by a shoe which follows the helical cam grooves in the rotating cam. With one-piece traverse yarn guides, the entire yarn guide twists to follow the cam groove for each cycle; the actual yarn guiding piece or eyelet turns on the yarn being traversed and causes excessive yarn damage. It is therefore advantageous to provide a pivot joint between the follower and the other, linearly reciprocating parts of the traverse yarn guide. See U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,664,596 to Lenk, 3,706,420 to Lapidas et al., 3,836,087 to Tschentscher and 3,940,075 to Lenk, all of which are hereby incorporated by reference. As discussed in the Tschentscher patent, relatively long delays by the guide in the vicinity of turnarounds causes undesirable buildup of yarn on the ends of the package. Long delays are created by cam grooves of greater than 0.476 cm (0.188 inch) width. The cam follower (or shoe), of necessity, must have a width smaller than the groove; cam followers which are made of molded plastic and rotationally receive a portion of the linearly traversing body (i.e., with the pivot function within the follower) are particularly susceptible to breakage. Space constraints, i.e., between the cam and the guide slot, may foreclose use of a pivot joint therebetween.
Most prior art traverse yarn guides are devices made of either metal with a carbide slot for the yarn or molded plastic with a ceramic eyelet. The disadvantages of the former are outlined in the Lapidas et al. patent. In the latter, designs wherein the molded plastic portion of the guide first presents itself to the yarn are quickly grooved by the yarn during stringup and thus destroyed.
The present invention has been developed to overcome these prior art problems. Other U.S. patents of interest are U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,502,282 to Graf and 3,984,062 to Robinson, both of which are hereby incorporated by reference.